Andrew McDermott

According to the Age of the Client, a LexisNexis report, 75 percent of lawyers see attracting clients as a significant challenge. What’s worse, 6 out of 10 lawyers see retaining clients as a challenge.

What if it wasn’t?

What if you were able to generate a never-ending supply of leads and clients for your law firm? Would you be as concerned for the future, especially in our current climate? I’m going to show you how to do just that today by creating digital tripwires.

What’s a Local SEO traffic-pump, and how can it help you?

It’s a referral system that drives a consistent stream of prospective clients to your website. These clients come from local sources (digital and offline) that are willing and able to make referrals on your behalf.

How this referral system helps you:

It minimizes business development costs

Attracts clients who are able and willing to invest in your services

Provides your law firm with steady channel partners you can rely on to grow your firm

It’s quid pro quo relationships at scale; you’re able to attract, develop, and nurture a significant number of profitable relationships for your firm over time.

Here’s a condensed view that explains how it works.

Step #1: Choose a practice area

The Pareto distribution (80/20 rule) applies here. You’ll want to choose the practice areas that perform best for your law firm. If the vast majority of your work comes from real estate clientele, you’ll want to take note of that. If you’re looking to transition from one practice area to another, focus your attention there.

The keywords you choose should be oriented around you, your firm, and your practice areas. If it’s directly related to any of these categories, you’ll want to add it to the list.

Step #4: Setup local tripwires

Head over to Google.com/Alerts then enter in these keywords. You’ll want to enter your keyword phrase in quotes like this:

” Small business attorney Chicagoland”

If you’re monitoring keywords on a specific site you’ll want to structure your keywords like this:

” Small business attorney Chicagoland” AND site:domain.com

You can also use Follow that Page if you’d like to monitor the content on a particular website. For example, you can use Law.com to curate content. If Law.com writes about legal challenges for small businesses, you can discuss that content with the local sites on your list.

Write it, deliver a speech, create a video, etc.

Next, you’ll want to create content along with a content upgrade. A content upgrade is an additional piece of education that’s designed to draw prospective clients to your site. If you’re a business attorney writing about employee contract law, for example, you can provide small businesses with a content upgrade in the form of an employee law checklist for small businesses.

Here’s where the tripwires are created.

You’re going to use GaryVee’s content pyramid to scale this content and maximize the amount of value you receive from this piece of content. What’s a content pyramid?

GaryVee explains: “The ultimate goal of creating this presentation on my content model is to show you how my team took one of my keynotes, repurposed it into 30+ pieces of content, and then successfully distributed all of that content, resulting in over 35,000,000 total views.”

That’s an easy fix; just reach out to the list of sources you’ve collected above and syndicate the content for each source. This means you:

Give them an unlisted link for your YouTube video

Give them a list of 5 to 10 tweets, that they can send out on their Twitter profile.

Do the same thing for each of your local sources, for each of their social media accounts.

If they’re on a social media platform, you create a micro version of your content for them to share regularly, promoting your business indefinitely

Once you’ve shared content with Local Source A, immediately ask Local Source B if they’d like to syndicate your content. You share your content with 10x more sources, but you only create it once!

Make sure the majority of your content leads back to your law firm website in some way.

Whenever you see content on a large, popular site that relates to the keywords in your list, you create better content for your local sources that they can share with their entrepreneurs.

How do you multiply your content?

If you host an event, make a speech, or run a workshop – record it.

Take that recording and turn it into an mp3.

Transcribe your recordings and turn them into a blog post or ebook.

Pull 5 to 10 quotes from that blog post then turn them into tweets, status updates, Instagram posts, etc.

Do this, and you’ll be seen everywhere in your local community. With 10 hours of work per month, you can ensure that your business will be seen everywhere in your local community.

This is the power of the local SEO traffic pump.

Local SEO can be incredibly profitable for your law firm

But it all depends on your referral system.

The right referral system drives a steady stream of prospective clients to your website. These high-value clients come from local sources (digital and offline) that are willing and able to refer your business to their audience. Provide them with the kind of value they’re looking for, and you’ll find their audience becomes yours.

Do this, and you join an elite group.

As we’ve seen, 75 percent of lawyers see attracting clients as a significant challenge. With the right referral system, you’ll have everything you need to attract a never-ending supply of leads and clients.

You have a big problem.

Your clients can’t tell you and your competitors apart. If you’re reading this, you’re probably an experienced attorney. You know the law. You know howthings work inside this complicated legal system of ours.

Your clients on the other hand, don’t.

Their expectations tend to be simple, naive and occasionally unrealistic. What’s worse, they know it. They know they don’t understand what you do.

Which means they’re lost without you.

What kind of lawyer are you anyway?

Local search provides clients with the answer.

Your clients are flying blind. When it comes to choosing an attorney, most clients aren’t particularly sophisticated. They don’t know where to begin, what to look for, or the questions they should ask. They can’t evaluate an attorney properly because they don’t know what they don’t know.

Here’s why their blindness is your problem.

When it comes to local search, the vast majority of lawyers make two verycommon mistakes.

They expect their clients to find them.

They expect their clients to evaluate them accurately.

1. They expect their clients to find them.

Most clients use local search in some shape or fashion to find the attorneys they work with. They use Google. They rely on referrals and recommendations. They troll review sites like Avvo. They ask for help on social media. If usual methods don’t work (and they’re desperate), they scrape a list together and they start making calls.

If you’re visible and you (or your agency) push the right buttons, you get their attention. If these prospects have a positive experience with you, you get more attention.

Here’s why that’s a problem.

Most lawyers aren’t visible. They’re not getting a lot of traffic to their sites. They don’t present their law firm to clients at the right time and place, with the right message.

So, they don’t win clients.

And if clients can find them? If they do get the traffic and attention they need, they often make another mistake.

2. They expect their clients to evaluate them accurately.

Imagine that a prospective client is in the market for a real estate attorney. They’re not sure where to start so they spend some time searching on Google. They create a shortlist of attorneys to call.

They begin working through their list.

They’re repeatedly forced to sift through jargon, weasel words, and noise — the information they either don’t understand or don’t care about.

Here’s an example:

“…dedicated to providing advice and expertise at the highest levels. We have achieved extraordinary results following the distinctive vision of our founders — a cohesive team of lawyers intensely focused on solving our clients’ most important problems.”

Or this.

“Each of our practice areas is highly regarded, and our lawyers are recognized around the world for their commitment to the representation of our clients’ interests.”

Which is basically a long-winded way of saying “we’re good at our jobs. Please hire us.” It doesn’t give clients anything clear they can use to evaluate these firms. Which is a problem because clients are looking for a way to quickly sort through their list. They’re short on expertise so they tend to focus their attention on two specific areas.

Credibility and outcomes.

Your clients use local search to quickly sort through candidates. Credibility and outcome markers help them qualify or disqualify potential candidates.

Your clients look for details like…

Precise dollar amounts (which you can’t share) and the number of settlements you’ve won

Your experience with cases like theirs

Your win/lose ratio

Specifics on your story and character

Awards, recognition and testimonials

Uniqueness that shows you have an edge over your competitors and in court

See where I’m going with this?

Outcomes are straightforward. Your clients want a specific answer to one question: “What specifically have you done for others like me?“

The more compelling your answer, the higher your conversion rate.

With local search for lawyers, your conversion rate is the key to success

What exactly is local content and why is it so important? Your local content tells people and search engines what your business, product or service is all about. That’s incredibly important because this gives Google the tools it needs to rank lawyers appropriately.

Lawyers who are starting out may work on these details themselves, but most established lawyers will probably delegate these responsibilities to someone else. Local content forms the basis of a strong local search and lead generation campaign. It’s vital that you develop a clear idea about the details your team should be working on.

Why?

When it comes to marketing there are two forms of content.

Education attracts client attention. It can be in the form of a story, entertainment or editorial. A thought piece or a research report. A checklist or a lead magnet. If it teaches clients something they want or need to know, it immediately attracts their attention. Education is important because it (a.) builds authority in the mind of prospective clients and (b.) it establishes your role as a trustworthy caregiver in the caregiver/recipient relationship.

Information informs clients. It deals with logistical and non-logistical questions. When they’re ready to select a firm their fears crop up. What’s your hourly rate? How long does my unused retainer last? Do you bill by the hour or at a flat rate? Where are you located? When are you open? By appointment only or are walk-ins welcome? Information trains clients, showing them how you do business.

If you want to win a significant amount of new clients you need both.

Seems obvious doesn’t it?

It’s the first step in a successful campaign but it’s also the portion most law firms get wrong. Where specifically do they go wrong?

They create content that’s top heavy – too much information, not enough education.

Share lots of information but fail to educate – ensuring clients haggle over hourly rates or complain about service.

Their local search profile is lopsided (e.g. lawyers share lots of content on Avvo but neglect Google reviews, Martindale, local directories and social media profiles).

Local search is about quality and quantity.

The competitive landscape is incredibly crowded. Law firms with the largest amount of high quality local content – the firms that focus on credibility and outcomes – rise to the top.

Using a variety of local search content, Obear gives prospective clients the credibility and outcome markers they need. His resume is impressive; it establishes him as an authority and is far more likely to cement him as a leading candidate with prospective clients.

Which local search tactics work best for lawyers?

Create a list of local search platforms. These profiles include social media platforms like Facebook, Review management platforms like Avvo and directory listings like YP.com. This also includes influential platforms (formal and informal) that you can use to attract more traffic to your website via local search keywords.

Build a list of (local) keywords. Use tools likeGoogle Keyword Planner, Soovle, AnswerthePublic.com, andUberSuggestto generate a list of keywords prospective clients use to find an attorney. Use practice areas, brand names, and common misspellings in your keyword list to attract more clients.

Create an irresistible offer for prospective clients. This goes beyond the free consultation many firms peddle. For example, you can provide potential clients with a fast start guide that includes helpful checklists, and a shopping guide with questions they should be asking (i.e., OWI fast start kit that helps clients find, vet and hire the right law firm).

Register, claim, and complete each of your local profiles. Adding your information to platforms like Apple Maps, Google, Facebook, Yelp, Avvo, Martindale, and others, gives clients meaningful information about your law firm. This includes your byline, hours of operation, phone number, email address, etc. Doing this prevents competitors or third party providers from claiming or holding your profile hostage.

Request reviews from your clients via support teams. This can be done via an automated (or semi-automated) service like our platform. Reviews are authoritative because they’re visible across a wide variety of search engines, social media, and review platforms. The more five-star reviews you have, the easier it is to attract, win, and retain outstanding clients.

Partner up with local community groups. If you’re a real estate attorney, join real estate clubs and investment groups. Participate in entrepreneur and investor meetups. Reach out to these groups and offer to conduct free or low cost seminars and workshops for their audience. Create irresistible offers tailored for each of the groups you approach. They’re going to do some digging on Google to vet you and your law firm properly. When they do, they’re going to see the substantial review, social, and search presence you’ve developed ahead of time, which will open doors for you.

Begin giving speeches and presentations to your target audience. If you’ve followed the steps I’ve laid out above, you’re a well-known presence in your community. Use this to approach larger groups in your community with the same offer you made to your community groups. Only this time, offer to conduct speeches, workshops, seminars, or events for their audience. If possible, negotiate payment for your services and the chance to present your irresistible offer to their audience.

Use paid advertising to identify your conversion keywords. You can use the income you’ve received from your speeches, workshops, seminars, and events to fund your advertising campaign. This campaign is focused on one thing — identifying the Google keywords that lead to money. Once you’ve identified them, invest heavily in Local and Organic SEO. The majority of the firms that use SEO choose their keywords blindly; you’re different, you’re selecting the keywords that produce revenue for your law firm.

See the difference?

If you want to win more clients with local search you’ll need to lead with content.

It sounds overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. If you’re looking to start small, here’s a shorter list you can use to get started.

Be a consistent creator. Create local content, reach out to local, high traffic publications. Pitch content to them. Use an irresistible offer to lure readers back to your site. Publish a podcast. Approach talk radio shows as a guest. Pitch a Q&A column to up-and-coming sites.

Did you catch the secret to local search?

It’s giving.

Make it a habit to give potential clients your best. Give them high quality education and clear information consistently. Use the platform provided by well known brands to win new clients quickly. Give your agency or your team, the data they need to answer your client’s subconscious question.

What kind of lawyer are you?

Local search provides your clients with the answer. Your clients know they don’t know the law, they can’t tell you and your competitors apart. They’re vulnerable, they’re lost, and they know it. Give your clients the credibility and outcome markers they need.

Provide them with exceptional content in the form of education and information. Do this for clients consistently, and they’ll reward you with more attention and more business than you can handle. .

Is it a hassle to get your invoices paid completely or on time? Maybe lost billables have been a problem for your firm?

If so, your invoices may be to blame.

Your invoice has a tremendous amount of power. In the right hands, it’s a tool you can use to boost realization rates and confirm or deny the image of your firm. It’s a helpful way to encourage loyalty and support or a surefire way to turn clients off.

Your clients won’t admit it, but they’re terrified

They’re nervous about working with attorneys.

Put yourself in their shoes. Imagine a professional tells you they’re going to help you at the discounted rate of $768 per hour. They’ll let you know when they’re finished working, and then they’ll send you a bill at the end of the month.

Pretty random, right?

As a client, you’re vulnerable and completely in the dark. Will they itemize absolutely everything (e.g., dry cleaning, phone calls, emails, text messages, lunch breaks)? Do they inflate billable hours?

Read through these examples of overbilling and something interesting stands out. Of the 800 lawyers doing court appointed work in this story, only 100 were overbilling. The others were “billing scrupulously.” When it came to client billing, most lawyers were trustworthy.

Your firm’s image depends (partially) on your billing

In the legal industry, a bill that’s ignored is a missed opportunity.

Best practices suggest that you work on the essential elements that are part of client billing. That’s important because a missed opportunity on your invoice creates all kinds of little problems for your firm.

Clients who refuse to pay on time or at all

Fee disputes from unhappy clients who refuse to pay a cent more than they have to

Clients spend less time and money with the firm

The perception that invoices + follow-up is sleazy, offensive or rude

Losing billables to shrink

Clients threatening to file a bar complaint

Suddenly, these problems aren’t so little, are they?

Include the correct details on your invoice, and you’re far more likely to receive the payment you deserve. Your clients won’t feel like they’re being nickeled and dimed to death.

Obvious, right?

Only it’s not entirely obvious. The anatomy of an invoice isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. Sure, there are basic details you’ll need to include. There are also hidden details that move your client relationship forwards or backwards.

What’s worse, these details are cumulative.

They’re designed to work together, with the benefits slowly improving client trust over time.

Following client billing best practices confirms trustworthiness

Clear. Clients know exactly what to expect. There are no hidden surprises, no gotcha moments where customers are blindsided by an unexpected bill, dollar amount or unfamiliar term. Clarity sets the tone for the relationship, determining whether clients are a fit for your firm, or not.

Transparent. Which line item is more trustworthy, “Prepare motion for summary judgment” or, “Divorce?” Which line item gives clients the impression that you’re working specifically on their behalf? Most people would list the first line item as more transparent.

Charitable.Unseen discounts, pro bono work, hidden write-downs and write-offs, they do nothing for you or your clients. If you’re giving customers a bonus, incentive or discount, make sure it’s listed on their invoice.

1. The basics

The barebones data your client needs to actually pay your invoice. This data is the absolute minimum. If you’re using a tool likeBill4Time to track your time this is simple and straightforward.

Your invoice should clarify…

Who to pay

Who is responsible for payment

How much to pay

When to pay it

Acceptable payment methods.

Where to send their payment

If you’re in business and you’re getting paid, you understand the basics. We all understand the basics of client billing so that means we need to focus our attention on…

2. Obvious data

Your recent / previous payment. This is a form of positive reinforcement. It gives clients a running tally of their recent payments and it shows that their payments were posted to their account. Normally this isn’t something your clients will even look at. This is the first place they’re look if there’s a balance dispute or disagreement about the amount that’s drawn from their retainer.

Bill date and details. This shows your clients when the bill was printed. Here’s why this matters. Chronic late payers may be wondering why wasn’t my payment reflected on my invoice? This gives you the opening you need to have a conversation about due dates.

Hours/fees breakdown. This gives clients a sense of your performance and hourly rate. It’s a simple heuristic clients can use to see who did what and when. Is a junior associate taking twice as long to handle something a partner can finish in half the time? Are you accidentally billing paralegals out at senior attorney rates? It’s an easy mistake to make, but it’s also considered fraud.

Late fees and discounts for early payment.There are obvious and hidden aspects to this, but it’s an easy and straightforward way to set boundaries with clients.

3. Hidden data

Outlining what you did versus what you gave. An unseen discount is worthless to your client. It’s worthless to you. Even worse, bringing up a discount after the fact is far more likely to create resentment. Clients are more likely to assume that you’re using discounts circumstantially to gain leverage over them.

Listing work completion dates. This isn’t as common as you’d expect but it’s a helpful way to minimize payment disputes. A detailed breakdown communicates (a.) you’re working consistently on specific tasks (b.) the time spent on these tasks are reasonable and appropriate.

Payment arrangement details. On the one hand, you probably don’t want to advertise payment arrangements as it may encourage clients to pay late or pay less. On the other hand, it’s something that can be used to encourage delinquent clients to pay vs. dealing with write-downs or write-offs.

Arranging payment due dates are pretty basic. But there’s also a hidden element at play. When it comes to follow-up, attorneys are notoriously bad at it. It’s incredibly common for customers to ignore an invoice for legitimate or illegitimate reasons. The lack of follow-up is common, but it’s also devastating to your firm’s cash flow.

So why does this happen? There’s a variety of reasons – don’t want to appear needy or greedy. Attorneys don’t want to offend their clients. Here’s what this lack of follow-up really communicates to your client. You don’t need or care to be paid for your hard work.

Setting rules and boundaries, e.g., rewarding clients who pay early and penalizing clients who pay late. This gives customers a clear indication of where they stand and what’s expected by all. If the rules are clear, there should be no confusion about what you’re doing or what needs to be done. Just make sure it’s reflected in your initial agreements.

These details may not seem like much. But they’re crucial in your client billing if you’d like to avoid:

Clients who refuse to pay on time or at all

Fee disputes from unhappy clients who refuse to pay a cent more than they have to

Clients who spend less time and money with the firm

The perception that invoices + follow up is sleazy, rude or offensive

Losing billables to shrink

Clients threatening to file a bar complaint

It’s essential to include the right details in your invoice, but it’s only half the story. What’s the other half?

Transparency

Namely, what’s the level of transparency you should use for line items? If your firm bills clients hourly, your work is straightforward and simple. Make sure your invoice line items are specific and clear.

It’s never that simple though is it?

Along comes the alternative fee arrangements (AFAs). Options for flat fee and non-billable payments for clients. As it turns out clients like these AFAs; flat-fee options give clients clarity, predictability and peace of mind. These AFAs come with an unpleasant downside, though.

Shadow billing

You know how it works. Your legal billings are set at a flat rate, but you still track and report billable hours. It’s supposed to be helpful. You and your client get to see if the flat rate price you quoted them is in line with reality. They get a flat rate, you receive valuable data to adjust your price for next time.

Imagine a … “law firm and client agree to undertake a given matter for a flat fee of $1 million. Everyone is happy with this rate and the client feels it represents a fair fee for the work to be performed.

Now the law firm happens to have a particularly innovative attorney who figures out a new way to complete the task at minimal cost. On a billable hour basis, the firm incurs only $50,000 in costs to quickly produce a top-quality result.

The client sees the work product and is thrilled. But when they see the shadow bill they become irate. How could the law firm bill them $1 million for something that took only $50,000 to complete?”

It all depends on your strategy: If you bill hourly, clients focus on minimizing the amount of work done on their behalf. If they need something done, cost becomes a motivating factor (instead of quality), if you bill at a flat rate, shadow billing becomes a problem.

It’s about transparency

When in doubt, obey the law. Be honest, open, and ethical. Give your clients a clear idea of what to expect, because that’s what your clients expect.

They want the right amount of data to maintain trust and openness. So what should you avoid? It’s actually pretty simple. Avoid anything in your invoice that deceives or overwhelms your clients.

Successful legal billing begins with consistent communication

What does communication have to do with realization rates or getting paid? According to the Legal Trends report, 44 percent of law firms list a client’s inability to pay all at once as the most common reason for nonpayment. Firms also state that 31 percent of clients pay late even when they have the funds.

“Firms increased their rates and clients responded by paying less. This finding reflects a fundamental disconnect between firms and their clients. Clients obviously do not believe they are getting fair value for the fees charged. Increasing rates is not going to change that view: indeed, continued price increases will only exacerbate the problem.”

The real problem?

Neither party wants to communicate. Clients are either skeptical that communication will produce any meaningful change, or they’re embarrassed that they can’t pay. So they ignore their firm’s invoice and pay what they want. Firms continue to increase their rates to reduce the overwhelming pressure they face.

Want your clients to…

Pay your invoices early or on time?

Pay without demanding sizeable discounts, write-downs, and write-offs to keep their business?

Pay your invoice immediately without haggling or complaining?

Communication is the key to invoicing success.

If you’ve noticed that your invoice in a billing period will be way off course from your client’s expectations, don’t ambush them with a terrifying invoice.

Pick up the phone and call them.

Let your point-of-contact know exactly what’s going on. Deliver the bad news concisely, clarify the who, what, when, why, and how. Add that explanation to the invoice, so they don’t have to try to remember that you called them on the phone. Let everyone, decision-makers, your point of contact, and the billing department know what’s coming ahead of time.

Wait a minute.

Wasn’t this about avoiding discounts, write-downs, and write-offs? Why should you negotiate with your clients about your invoice?

Clients need to weigh-in before they can buy-in.

If you don’t give your clients a chance to weigh-in, the opportunity to sit with the bad news you’ve just delivered, and to express their dissatisfaction, you won’t get them to agree to pay your invoice. Most attorneys swing from one extreme to another.

They discount heavily to keep their client’s business (but they lose their respect in the process)

Or they refuse to discount and attempt to force clients to pay an invoice they don’t want to pay. They win the battle but lose the client.

Communicate with your clients, and you’ll find it’s easier to earn their acceptance.

Invoice acceptance begins with a checklist

A legal billing checklist is a helpful way to boost realization rates. A checklist gives you the upfront time you need to identify the strategy, tactics, tools, and resources required to produce the outcomes you want, even if clients are unwilling to pay what you ask.

A legal billing checklist helps your law firm:

Identify (and reset) client expectations ahead of time

Provide you with the intel and leverage you need to keep clients happy and realization rates high

Troubleshoot billing and realization problems ahead of time

Spot legal billing headaches and issues before they metastasize into delinquent payments

Solve these problems ahead of time, and you increase your realization rates naturally.

Let’s take a look at the various items in this 16 point checklist.

Task/to-do

Why it’s important

Client screening protocols

Someclients won’t be interested in payingfor your services at any cost. These protocols identify and sort your ideal and dysfunctional clients. This simple step is taken for granted, but it’s an easy way to boost your firm’s realization rates.

An awareness of your client’s expectations provides you anopportunity to reset/updatethem (via your fee agreement), so they’re in-line with reality. This reset prevents the relationship from going sour due to financial misunderstandings.

Create AFA matching protocols

If you’re consistently discounting your fees, a fixed fee arrangement may help restore profitability in your firm. Client misbehavior is often an indication of an AFA mismatch. AFAs can be used creatively to boost client responsiveness, boost firm realization rates, and increase profit per partner/employee.

Set unexpected billing protocols

Sending clients a large bill with an unexpected dollar amount is a surefire way totrigger a billing dispute. Unexpected billing protocols outline how you go about making the unexpected easier for clients to handle.

Create a discount reduction plan

Discounts erode law firm profits. The reason is simple. Clients want your services. They don’t want your bill. A discount reduction planprovides you with helpful tools you can use to increase realization rates across your firm.

Add nonfinancial payment incentives

If you’re looking for ways to motivate clients to pay on time,nonfinancial incentives(e.g., bonuses, events, workshops, connections, luncheons, favors, etc.) are a great place to start. These incentives provide you with the precious income your firm needs by addressing non-monetary wants.

Set communication intervals

How often should you communicate with your clients regarding their matter? Regarding your bill? (hint: a5:1 positive/negative ratiois ideal) However, you’ll need to identify the communication interval that works best for your firm.

Contemporaneous tracking tools

Your timesheets should be treated as inventory. Every line item is a unit of revenue for your firm. You’ll need to identify the time tracking tools that enable timekeepers in your firm to track their time as-it-happens.

Verify timekeeper entries [daily]

Are your timekeepers following best practices? Which timekeepers are tracking their time (billable and non-billable) daily? Are their time entries descriptive and accurate? Are they adding time entries as-it-happens or at the end of the day? Accurate time tracking is crucial for a variety of reasons – it’s how most firms are paid, it helps firms measure their utilization rates

Outline billing confirmation/compliance

Complying with yourclient’s billing guidelinesis an easy way to ensure your invoices are paid fully and on time. Client billing guidelines are historically terrible.

This means you’ll need to supplement client billing guidelines with your own. You’ll want to track actions that are required or forbidden. You’ll also want to identify stop words that flag your invoices for review.

Create billing follow-up systems

When are clients reminded about your invoice? How many reminders are sent? Are they sent via phone, email, text, or IM? You’ll want to outline the follow-up systems needed for your invoices. It’s also a good idea to identify the point of contact responsible for reaching out to each client. The attorney handling their account is ideal, but you’ll need to determine what’s best for you.

Set client termination protocols

When should you terminate your relationship with a client? How many payments can be missed? What are the conditions or criteria that need to be met before termination takes place? You’ll need to identify key deal breakers ahead of time.

Set collection activity protocols

When and how do you initiate collections activity? What specific steps should be taken? How do you notify your client? Determining the when and how of collections activity removes much of the emotion from your client relationships – especially if you provide clients with written, upfront communication.

Invoicing best practices includes good client communication. The better your client communication, the easier it will be to boost your realization rates. Proper client billing, consistent client communication, these are the hidden keys to invoicing success.

When it comes to client billing, one size doesn’t fit all

Billing in the legal industry – it doesn’t have to be complicated.

Your invoice has a tremendous amount of power. In the right hands it’s a tool you can use to confirm or deny the image of your firm. It’s a helpful way to encourage loyalty and support or, a surefire way to turn your clients off.

Your invoice is the key

Your clients don’t have to be terrified. They don’t have to be nervous when working with you. Put yourself in their shoes. Work to become an attorney who’s open and transparent. Imagine sending out a bill your clients are pleased to pay. It’s possible, if you rely on best practices for client billing.

Do that and you’ll find your invoices help to generate the client loyalty and support you need.

There’s been a 500 percent increase in “near me” mobile searches. We’re in the middle of a local search explosion. According to Google, nearly one-third of all mobile searches, 1.1 billion+ searches per day, are location-specific search queries.

These searches continue to climb.

The numbers from Google’s report shows a staggering change taking place, one that lawyers and law firms may not be prepared for.

Why Local SEO is essential for your law firm

Local search is a way of life for your clients. More and more, your clients are conditioned to search for the specific things they want, regardless of what it is. Research from Think with Google shows:

This is why local SEO is so essential. Most lawyers are familiar with SEO; a savvy few are even familiar with the ins and outs of local SEO. Most do it badly.

If you’d drive like a reliable stream of eager clients to your law firm, you’ll need to focus your attention on local SEO.

What exactly is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a subset of Search Engine Optimization that focuses on local intent.

Lawyers near me

Real estate attorney in Chicago Loop

DUI lawyer in Milwaukee

Affordable Small business lawyer in NYC

Those results can be displayed in a special table known as the local pack or their usual results.

Google uses signals called local search ranking factors to determine which law firms are displayed first/prominently in its search engine. The better your local search ranking factors, the better your rank in Google’s local search results.

Here’s a list of these signals:

Google My Business (GMB) Profile: A free profile that helps you to drive engagement via Google Maps, Google Reviews, and other services on Google. A GMB profile is a must-have for strong local SEO performance.

Link Signals: Who links to you, the number of sites that link to you, the words they use to link to you, etc. Each link functions like a vote. The more votes you receive from high trust or high profile sites, the easier it is to rank for your desired keywords.

Review Signals: The number of online reviews you have, review recency (recent reviews are more valuable), review diversity (i.e., reviews on a variety of other sites), review velocity (how fast do you accumulate reviews?). The stronger your review portfolio, the easier it is to attract new clients at a lower cost.

On-Page Signals: Your website’s reputation, your name, address, and phone numbers are consistent with information available online. The amount of traffic coming to your site and more.

Citation signals: Consistent name, address, and phone numbers across the internet, on each of your profiles. Listings on a variety of relevant, local sites and directories.

Social signals: Engagement on social media platforms (e.g., likes, hearts, shares, etc.) also function as votes. They’re challenging to game and provide Google with a helpful measure of a lawyer’s brand reputation and credibility. If you’re consistently trending on Facebook or Twitter, you’re worthy of more attention.

Optimize your law firm around these local search ranking factors, and you improve the volume of traffic and leads you receive from Google.

Why Local SEO is a problem for lawyers

Savvy lawyers are aware of these concepts, that isn’t the problem. It’s merely a good understanding of marketing.

This isn’t your fault. Several barriers make it challenging to draw clients to your law firm successfully. I’m talking about cultural programming, perceptions, and myths that shape how lawyers promote their firm.

Let’s take a look at a few of these.

It’s unprofessional to sell. This is a bit of a paradox — rainmakers are revered in law firms, but selling is often viewed as a sin. This discomfort with selling has a lot to do with the social and political class requirements of the profession. That’s a tough position to be in because, like it or not, selling is a necessity in the legal industry.

My law firm isn’t a business; it’s a calling. This is true, but you can’t help clients with your calling if they don’t know you exist.

Clients hate being sold. In reality, clients hate being pushed, bullied, or manipulated into something they don’t want. They want to be treated fairly and to be given a choice. Doing this the right way is what selling is.

My time is best spent focused on client matters. No problem, find someone to handle the business development and marketing concerns for you. Get someone else to solve this problem for your law firm.

I want to practice law, not run a business. You can’t have one without the other. At some point, you’ll be expected to attract clients, whether you’re a solo lawyer or a hungry lawyer who’s looking to make partner.

We get clients through referrals. This is good news, but it’s also irrelevant because your competitors are overtaking your firm on Google, Facebook, Yelp, and other platforms as we speak. Eventually, you’ll be forced out of the client conversation.

We already have rainmakers. You have rainmakers until you don’t. It’s common for law firms to depend on rainmakers; what these firms don’t realize is the fact that these rainmakers hold their firms hostage. They use their ability to generate business as a bargaining tool to make unreasonable demands. What happens when their firm fails to meet their needs? They take the clients they brought in elsewhere, leaving your firm exposed and unprotected.

Here’s the good news.

These issues are relatively easy to overcome. With a little bit of preparation and the right strategy, you can use Local SEO to attract clients to your law firm, with minimal, direct, one-on-one selling required.

Local SEO isn’t an optional add-on, it’s a must-have

It’s an essential requirement if you want to stay in the game. Google says the demand for local search is growing. Your clients are spending more time on Google to find the services and providers they need.

Can they find you?

Local search is a way of life for your clients. Your clients know what they want, more and more, they’re turning to Google to get it. In my next post, I’ll show you how to build a strong local SEO campaign that produces traffic, generates leads and boosts

Most aren’t being paid well for their time. Research shows the average utilization rate for law firms is 31 percent — this means attorneys are only spending 2.5 hours on billable work each day. Attorneys spend an average of 5.5 hours per day on nonbillable work. There are other mistakes at play here.

These mistakes sap the profitability of your law firm

It makes long-term growth more difficult over time. Here’s the good news: These problems can be resolved.

With a little bit of awareness and consistent practice, your firm will be one of the few to overcome these mistakes. Let’s take a look at three common problems that costs law firms 50 percent (or more) of their revenue.

Mistake #1: A strong resistance to change

A 2019 Altman Weil report found partners resist change in their organization. This change trickles from the top down, creating firm-wide challenges that compound over time.

“In 69% of firms, partners resistance to change is an embedded drag on progress, and recent economic successes may obscure any clouds on the horizon – at least for the shortsighted.”

What does this have to do with billing?

This is the most important driver in your organization. Your partner’s willingness to adapt or comply with change means all of the other mistakes covered below are either a short-term or long-term problem. If partners function as mercenaries, change will be messy, difficult, and temporary.

What does this mean?

It means law firm leadership needs to find a way to get everyone on the same page. You do that by giving everyone a chance to weigh-in so you can earn their buy-in. Patrick Lencioni, management consultant and best-selling author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, explains:

“If people do not weigh in on a decision, I fundamentally believe that they’re not going to buy-in to that decision. People who don’t weigh-in cannot buy-in. Don’t mistake this for consensus though; they don’t have to agree, they don’t all have to arrive at a consensus.”

The most important requirement here is that firm leadership give their partners a chance to weigh-in. Doing so enables the firm to earn its partners’ buy-in. Your organization cannot make progress without buy-in.

Mistake #2: Poor systems and procedures

Benjamin Lieber, a Managing Partner at the Potomac Law Firm, described accepting attorney timesheets.

“Lawyers would send me their time every month by email, and it would come in all different formats and all different conventions and levels of granularity. And even the units would vary somewhat. Some would use a tenth of an hour, or some would use quarter hours. Some would use a third of an hour. It was a mess…”

Next, Lieber would “take all that, put it into spreadsheets, and then put it into invoices. That worked okay for the first 10 or 12 clients…”

This simple problem creates a tremendous amount of billable leakage.

His attorneys sent their time entries at the end of the month. His attorneys were both undercharging and overbilling clients, immediately leaking revenue and damaging client relationships. The losses are even higher if clients choose to walk away due to the firm’s inconsistent or poor billing habits.

All of his attorneys were reconstructing their time entries. The research on this is detailed; you lose 10 percent of your revenue if you record time entries the same day. You lose 25 percent if you wait 24 hours, and 50 to 70 percent if you wait one week. Wait 30 days, and the losses may be as high as 200 to 280 percent of the revenue they should have.

These attorneys used a variety of unhelpful formats and billing conventions. This created more leakage as associates spent a significant amount of time on nonbillable tasks (filling out timesheets) and less time on nonbillable work. Managing partners lose more time working in the business instead of working on firm business

His attorneys relied on Excel spreadsheets, costing their firm an estimated $86,294 to $106,294 per person, per year. This figure doesn’t even include the financial fallout from the billable leakage/overbilling I mentioned above.

These are expensive mistakes.

But they all boil down to one specific problem, inadequate systems and procedures. This is why your firm needs a good minder. Minders are focused on managing the firm well, optimizing its policies and procedures, and ensuring everyone — partners, attorneys, and support teams are all on the same page. It’s a minder’s job to work on the business, not in the business.

Minders are managers and executives. They manage the firm’s activities and are responsible for helping the firm to grow consistently over time.

Grinders do the work. These are the workhorses of the law firm. They’re the associates who complete client matters, handle cases and complete projects. The firm’s revenues come from their labor.

Here’s the problem.

Many law firms expect attorneys to perform well in all four roles. This is an unreasonable expectation that sets your team up for failure. Associates work best when they’re assigned a specific role that meshes well with their personalities. If an attorney wants to add a role, there should be sufficient evidence to justify that.

How does this affect billing?

Whenever possible, provide attorneys with the help and assistance they need for tasks that are outside of their role.

Give grinders the tools and resources they need to focus exclusively on racking up billable hours.

Provide minders with the assistance needed to handle firm minutia so they can work on growing the firm.

Whenever possible, use freelancers, third party support, personal, and virtual assistants to pick up the slack. A client billing liaison can provide attorneys with the breathing room they need to excel in their role. A client billing liaison can help you:

Review attorney timekeeping throughout the day, ensuring billing is contemporaneous and consistent.

Follow up with attorneys and management if improvements in the billing cycle are required.

Provide research assistance and tracking to minimize potential write-offs of unbilled time.

Identify sources of billable leakage, poor utilization, and poor realization throughout the firm.

Reconcile client payment history and presenting findings to clients and management.

Assist with sending/distributing client invoices on an as-needed basis.

This seems obvious until you realize many attorneys are handling multiple roles daily. They work on client matters, act as client liaison, attempt to function as rainmakers and struggle to perform adequately in each role.

It’s too much to handle.

A 50 percent loss in revenue is a symptom

The average attorney loses half of their money.

These billing mistakes cost law firms 50 percent of the revenue (or more). This loss of income and the poor habits that produce them — they’re symptoms of a deeper problem: A strong resistance to change, inadequate systems and procedures, and poor delegation and automation.

These are the hidden drivers, the root causes of the problems plaguing most law firms today. These problems aren’t easy to fix, but the solution is simple.

How can these billing tips double your law firm’s revenue at a time when many firms are experiencing a decline in demand for legal services? According to the 2019 State of the Legal Market, law firm realization rates have dropped significantly and continued to decline since the Great Recession. This has harmed firm revenues.

Is it possible in this economic climate for a firm to double its revenue?

Doubling your revenue: More about you, less about competition

These billing tips are more about your behavior than they are about your competitors and their actions. Boosting your income comes down to three best practices.

Minimizing errors and mistakes

Increasing your firm’s income

Layering your firm’s income

In my [previous post], I shared several strategies you can use to reduce billing mistakes. In this post, we’ll focus on the strategies you can use to double your firm’s revenues.

Let’s take a look.

Billing tips to increase your firm’s revenue

First, some important disclaimers:

The strategies I mention may require modification to work correctly.

Some of them may not work in your jurisdiction due to legal constraints.

For many of you, these strategies will work well, which may create a (different) set of problems.

I’ve written comprehensive guides on each of these topics; I recommend that you take a look at them.

Increase your firm’s productivity. Believe it or not, it is possible to 2x or even 4x your productivity. To boost your firm’s productivity, you’ll need to make the distinction between toil and productivity. Toil refers to tedious, exhausting, and repetitive busywork that’s never-ending. Productivity is work that rings the meter, taking you closer to your goals and objectives.

Educate to attract new clients.Education is the key to attracting a steady stream of clients. While many firms have a problem with selling, very few have a problem with educating prospective clients. As it turns out, education attracts clients consistently because it does two things well. First, it identifies a problem clients have, and second, it positions you as the solution to your prospective client’s problem. Once you’ve educated clients, they’ll approach you as a prospect. This is when you provide them with information. When I use the word information, I’m referring to details like your billing policies, available AFAs, client references, practice areas, years of experience, cases won, etc. Information turns prospects into clients.

Create win-win-win origination credit schemes. To quote Jim Cotterman, principal at Altman Weil, origination credit schemes are “the single most important determinative factor in partner compensation.” Origination plans are crucial to your firm’s survival. Research shows, when clients were served by three practice groups, revenues were 5.7 times higher than those served by one. Clients who were served by five practice groups generated fees that 17.6 times higher than those served by one. This also prevents poaching. When multiple practice groups serve clients, they remain loyal to the firm, rather than an individual attorney. This is the single, most effective way to boost employee morale, increase firm business, and keep clients.

Each of these strategies can double your income on their own but that’s not the most efficient use of these strategies.

A better approach?

You double or triple up on these strategies; find the approach that works best for you, get it to a place where it’s working for your firm. Then you add another strategy from the list, then another. These are big problems, but they produce a disproportionately large amount of revenue for your firm when you get them right.

It isn’t hard. It just requires hard work.

The strategies I’ve shared above are conventional approaches you can use to double your firm’s revenue. In the next section, we’ll take a look at transformative results.

Transformative results build careers and firms. These are the extras, the above and beyond results that make things better for your firm, the industry, or clients as a whole. It’s doing what other attorneys or firms won’t or can’t do. Most real estate attorneys, for example, won’t take the time to run monthly webinars or workshops for real estate investors or corporate entities.

See what I mean?

Use these law firm billing tips to double your revenue

It’s not about them. It’s about you.

As we’ve seen, these billing tips are more about your behavior and the way your firm is structured than it is about your competitors. Boosting your income comes down to following and optimizing your firm around best practices.

Most firms don’t want to do the work.

It’s annoying, tedious, and occasionally difficult work. But this is also your opportunity. The research shows many firms are experiencing a decline in demand for legal services. Realization rates have dropped significantly and continued to decline since the Great Recession.

Law firms need to adapt to survive.

You have the blueprint; double or triple up on these strategies. Find the approach that works best for you then get it to a place where it’s working for your firm. Then, when you’re ready, add another strategy from the list.

Doubling your revenue isn’t impossible.

With a structured plan and clear steps to follow, you’ll find you have everything you need to double your firm’s revenue year-over-year.